


You could be happy

by Lady_in_Red



Category: Pitch (TV 2016)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Divorce, F/M, Ficlet, Future Fic, Gen, Moving On, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-04
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-09-14 14:43:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9186794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_in_Red/pseuds/Lady_in_Red
Summary: Rachel receives an unexpected late night phone call from Mike.Post season 1, future fic.





	

Rachel answers the ringing phone without opening her eyes. “Rachel Patrick,” she says, stifling a yawn. This late at night, the call can only be from work. She’s in Grand Rapids, interviewing high school lacrosse players, none of whom are comfortable on camera. 

“I’m sorry.” 

Rachel sits up. That deep, rumbling voice doesn’t belong to her boss or her producer. She glances at the screen. Caller unknown. A San Diego number. “Mike?”

In the chill darkness of her hotel room, she hears him inhale sharply. “Shit. Sorry, I didn’t realize how late it was.”

Rachel reaches over and turns on the lamp on the nightstand. “We haven’t spoken in over a year and it’s,” she peers at the bedside clock, “2:14 a.m. here. Are you okay?”

On his end of the line, she can hear voices in the background. The television, probably tuned to a late game. He doesn’t sound drunk, but Mike didn’t always, especially if he was already in a black mood to begin with. Rachel doesn’t know enough about his life now to judge his mood. They’ve been divorced for two years, separated for three, but that still seems strange after a decade with him. She knows Mike retired last fall, without winning a World Series, and became a play-by-play announcer for Fox Sports. 

“I’m fine, Rach. Just sorry. Needed you to know that.” Mike sounds tired but sincere. 

She used to have trouble resisting him when he was like this. Something lost and lonely in his voice, the hole inside him she could never fill, made Rachel want to hold him and tell him everything would be okay. But that’s not her job anymore. 

“Sorry for what?” Mike could apologize for a lot of things, going all the way back to their wedding, delayed two weeks beforehand because the Padres unexpectedly made the playoffs. Or the year he completely forgot her birthday because he was on a roadtrip. Or when he rolled off her after sex and immediately grabbed his phone to text Sonny Evers about something he’d remembered while fucking her. Actually that happened more than once.

“All I heard was you complaining that I worked too much. I didn’t get it.” 

Rachel wants to laugh. She wants to say, “I told you so.” She wants to feel vindicated. But all she feels is relief that she’s not living that life anymore. “And now you understand?”

He sighs, low and resigned. “Yeah, it fucking sucks. I have all these stories, all these things I want to tell her, that pile up during the day, and half the time I come home to an empty house. If I’m lucky, she calls at night and I get to talk to her for ten minutes before she starts falling asleep.”

So he’s still with Ginny Baker. When Rachel first heard about Mike hooking up with his 24-year-old pitcher, she dismissed it as a fling. Mike had just retired, and what better ego boost than fucking the girl on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue? In an effort to sell more magazines to women, they even gave her an interior photo spread with Bryce Harper of the Nationals. She was stunning. Rachel expected to hear about a messy break-up, but almost a year later they make occasional public appearances and otherwise stay out of the spotlight. 

This is the point where Mike probably expects her to commiserate. Instead she says, “If you can’t handle it, get out now. You aren’t doing Ginny any favors by staying if you’re miserable.” The truth is, they could have saved their marriage but neither of them cared enough to try. The truth is, they never should have gotten married in the first place, and the only reason it lasted as long as it did was because her career kept her busy. 

“Rach, I don’t want out,” Mike says, oddly hesitant. “I asked Ginny to marry me.”

“Oh.” Rachel remembers the way he used to look at her. How he said he just wanted Rachel to be happy. Maybe she really isn’t as good a person as Mike, with all his faults, because a part of Rachel wanted him to love her forever. He was supposed to keep fucking anonymous groupies and weathergirls and the occasional featherbrained starlet, women he didn’t actually care about. Mike Lawson wasn’t supposed to fall in love again. 

“I just—I wanted to tell you myself.” He’s so serious. Rachel can’t remember the last time they talked and he didn’t crack a joke. He even managed it the day they admitted that reconciling would be a mistake.

“Mike, are you sure about this? She could play another decade. All that time apart, all that time waiting for the family I know you want.” Whether it’s jealousy or their history that makes her speak up, Rachel isn’t sure. Having children was a constant argument in their marriage. The first few years they both felt too young, but after that, Mike brought it up often and Rachel didn’t want to risk her career for a baby she’d be raising almost entirely by herself. In the last year of their marriage, she finally told him flat out that she didn’t want children. 

She hears the television click off on his end of the line. “That’s between me and her, Rach.”

“Right.” Of course he doesn’t want to talk with her about this. But it still smarts to be shut out. 

“Look, it’s late, I should let you go.” 

She wonders if he means that the way she hears it, but either way, it feels final when they say goodbye. 

 


End file.
